Research Focus
Dr. Wolfgang Baehr’s career work addresses the bio-chemistry and molecular biology of the capture of light by photoreceptors in the eye (phototransduction), and the biochemistry of the key elements in that process (the Visual Cycle) with a focus on gene defects causative for human retinal disease.
Dr. Baehr’s early research generated one of the first transgenic mouse models for autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa, identified specific gene defects in several other animal models of human disease, and characterized key regulatory molecules in the phototransduction pathway. Dr. Baehr has published over 145 manuscripts covering topics in inorganic and organic chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, molecular biology, bacteriology, infectious disease and genetics.
At the Moran Eye Center, Dr. Baehr’s laboratory continues the hunt for genes implicated in blinding retinal degenerations using techniques from molecular biology, biochemistry, and neurobiology. In addition to the study of the 50-60 genes thought to be involved in rod and cone phototransduction, the laboratory is also tracking genes involved in the Visual Cycle. This pathway recycles nutritionally-derived Vitamin A aldehyde, the light-catching molecule or chromophore of photoreceptor cells, employing a complex export/import process between photoreceptors and the retinal pigmented epithelium.
Finding a Cure for Human Retinal Degeneration
The long-range goal of Dr. Baehr’s research is to design strategies to ameliorate or cure human retinal degenerations: diseases for which no cures exist. These strategies are based on the discovery of many genes and their related proteins that malfunction in inherited retinal diseases. The complexities of these pathways means that designing curative gene therapies is a complex process requiring profound and accurate knowledge of the molecules involved and their many interactions.
Dr. Baehr arguably heads the world’s premier molecular genetics laboratory: the Moran Eye Center’s lead team in discovering the mechanisms underlying incurable retinal diseases.
